Since the Iran war started a little more than a month ago, there has been a lot of focus on the costs of the war, militarily and economically.
But what about the emotional and mental health cost to service members, veterans and their families? And what can communities do to help?
Carl Castro is a retired U.S. Army Colonel, a professor of social work and psychology and director of military and veterans programs at the University of Southern California. He’s also co-author of the book “Veteran and Military Mental Health: A Clinical Manual.”
Castro joined Here & Now to shine a light on what members of the military, their families and veterans may be experiencing as the Iran war enters a second month.
6 questions with Carl Castro
Should you thank a Veteran for their service?
“Most veterans appreciate being appreciated. And so thanking a veteran is fine. But veterans are always thinking, ‘I could have done more. There’s things going on. I wish I could do more now.’
“So in some ways, it’s a sense of regret that we’re still not sort of in the fight, figuratively and in some cases, like events going on in the world today, literally. So that’s sort of why you get various responses to that, to that phrase, ‘Thank you for your service.’”
What’s a better phrase to use?
“I just think by saying, ‘Thank you for serving.’ You don’t have to thank them for their service because that’s sort of past tense, versus if they’re in uniform, they’re currently serving. So I would say just say ‘Thank you for serving’.”
What are you hearing from service members?
“The most important thing for anyone who has served in the military, and especially who served in the military during war, is you want to win the war. That’s what military personnel are trained to do. They’re trained to fight and win. The United States right now is not on a really good winning streak when it comes to wars. And this goes all the way back to Vietnam, obviously.
“So most of the thinking right now is not only do we not want another prolonged war, but we want to make sure that the sacrifices that the service members who die in fighting these wars, the deaths aren’t in vain, that it actually is going to be something meaningful and worthwhile.”
How much does uncertainty weigh on service members and their families?
“Predictability is really important, and predictability doesn’t have to happen in the details. So you don’t have to say ‘on this date, on this time, we’re going to be in this location’. Right? That would just be silly for military to provide that level of predictability and specificity.
“But what families need to know, what service members need to know, is what’s the end state? When will we know we’ve reached it? How long will it take to get there? If service members are deployed anywhere in the region, how long will they be gone? When will they return? These are the things that all of the research shows being very, very important, not only for the well-being of the service member, those doing the fighting and deploying, but also for the family members back home.”
How might the Iran War impact Veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and what should they do?
“What usually gets enhanced during this phase is the symptom that we referred to as re-experiencing, because now they’re seeing images on TV or reading about the images that would cause them to re-experience their own trauma that they may have experienced when they were in combat. But it wouldn’t be in the sense you’re retraumatized as much as you’re re-experiencing your own experiences, recalling the memories that you have. And that can certainly increase.
“The first thing I would say is what you’re experiencing by re-experiencing these events is normal. You’re not losing your mind. You haven’t become worse off. It’s a normal reaction. And not everybody will have that reaction, by the way. But don’t think that somehow you’re different or you’re going back to square one. It’s a very, very normal reaction. And if you’re currently seeing a therapist, share what you’re feeling, what you’re thinking, what you’re re-experiencing with them. If you’re not seeing a therapist, then talk to a trusted family member or friend or mentor about what you’re experiencing.
“In order to avoid re-experiencing anything, you just avoid that experience. Now, this is also one of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, the avoidance aspect, where you avoid situations where you will re-experience the trauma.
“What you want to do is, you know, don’t keep the TV on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And that’s something that veterans tend to do. You know, when there’s a new war, they want to find out what’s going on, who’s involved, what can they see? What can they find out? And that can be healthy because information generally is a healthy coping mechanism, seeking out accurate information. So you’re not acting on rumors and forming your impressions based on rumors, but at the same time, you may re-experience things that maybe is not in your best interest to re-experience at that moment.”
What else is important for people to understand?
“There’s been a lot, of course, written and talked about from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan around how combat changes you, how deployments change you, how it changes relationships because of the separation, because of the changed service member who’s coming home. None of that is different. This has been true since the recorded history of warfare. It’s not new.
“You mentioned earlier that your father, they called it shell shock. The names change, but the suffering and the symptoms don’t change. Don’t think that this war is different and unique and you’re not going to see these changes. These changes are going to happen. It’s something you can go back a thousand years, 2,000 years, when these things were first being written about. People change. War changes you. Combat changes you. And it’s not that you’re weak because you’re changed. You’re just going to be a different person. Doesn’t mean you’re going to have a mental health disorder, doesn’t mean you’re going to become violent or suicidal or any of those things. Most combat veterans are not like that, but they are different.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Jenna Griffiths produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Griffiths also produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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